Stephen Sheffield Fine Art Photography & Mixed Media

2012-02-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

NEW YEARS EVE

2 balloon Finn

2011-12-30T19:20:00.001-05:00

Balloon, boy, elevator, childhood, boston,

shallow

2011-11-26T00:47:00.001-05:00

Hawthorne Window

2011-09-30T21:34:00.000-04:00

“The Hawthorne Window”

A montage of captured imagery from the inside out.

The music is “Surfside” by Les Green of The Denvermen

new work+ "summer up close"

2011-08-04T22:04:00.001-04:00

new work- "summer close up"

2011-07-27T21:02:00.001-04:00

Fatherhood & Art: Post 1

2011-05-16T13:54:00.000-04:00

Father & Son #4

Fatherhood has changed my work (and is in the process of changing my work) in so many ways.

Here is the first in an ongoing series of posts investigating the ups and downs of art-making in the context of family.

Paris Selections

2011-05-02T11:13:00.000-04:00

April in Paris 2011

Panopticon Gallery | Becoming Dr. Land | Behind the Scenes

2011-03-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

Ladder Series, The Sonambulist

2010-11-30T13:25:00.002-05:00

Thieves shudder, and the insane have a hunger for snow.

In which good planners dream of being buried by black stones.

And men with stiff faces like me fall on their knees in the dungeons of sleep.

-Robert Bly

(part of an ongoing series focussed on dream imagery)

Monument Series continues: George Washington, Boston

2010-11-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

My monument series continues with the ubiquitous statue of George Washington

in Boston's Public Garden.

(still slowly using up my stash of Polaroid T-55)

Cyanotype #2 of Angel (from my ongoing monument series)

2010-08-18T08:03:00.001-04:00

Cyanotype on 8.5"x11" ledger paper. Polaroid T55

Cyanotype #1 of Angel (from my ongoing monument series)

2010-08-17T13:44:00.000-04:00

A cyanotype on simple 16"x20"white card stock from a Polaroid T55 negative.

Boston Monument Series

2010-06-17T16:19:00.002-04:00

I was recently given a full box of Polaroid T-55 in exchange for an 11x14 silver print of an image I made with the gifted film. I took this an an opportunity to explore a series I have been meaning to get to for some time now. This image is from my first outing this past week.

Thank you to Erik Simkins,

http://simkinsphotography.com/ ,

who contacted me out of the blue to give me his last box of Polaroid T-55.

I am so appreciative because this particular film is no longer made, and even though The Impossible Project has brough back certain Polaroid films, as far as I know the large format and positive/negative films will not be brought back. You can also follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/simkinsphoto

Thinking about getting back into moving pictures

2010-04-21T22:58:00.002-04:00

This is a strip of film cut from a 16mm short I shot of my friend RJ tearing through the woods in a suit and tie. There is an energy to it that I find very seductive, and the act of cutting and splicing has a such a simplicity to it in the face of all this digital technology (blogging included). I am interested in shooting "moving portraits", and fictional vignettes and not necessarily running them through a projector.

Some links to interesting moving images

Eadweard Muybridge

Mashup by Mike Patton

Collage of Etienne-Jules Marey & Duchamp

Jules Marey films X child movements

House M.D. buys a silver print of Ladder 33

2010-02-20T14:30:00.002-05:00

Interesting sale of one of my photographs.

The art department of the TV show "House M.D." on Fox TV has purchased a framed silver print of Ladder 33 for permanent installation in Dr. House's loft apartment.

Below are some photographs shot by one of the production assistants on the set.

(the set is in between shoot dates, so it not set up)

Leaf, Hand, Gone

2010-02-19T13:38:00.006-05:00

If I determine the weight of each stone in a bed of pebbles and get an average weight of 145 grams, this tells me very little about the real nature of the pebbles. - C.G. Jung

time off from "serious" photography

2010-01-25T11:17:00.004-05:00

As a way of gearing up to jump back into a new series of work I have been actually carrying a camera around with me every day. Might be hard to believe that someone who uses a camera to make a living wouldn't have a camera with him or her at all times, but its true.

Here I am putting my toe back in the water.

10/5/09

2009-10-07T01:39:00.005-04:00

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

RAYMOND CHANDLER

These are a few samples from a series shot with my old Olypus OM-2. I used 400 speed film with an an attached motor drive while i chased my friend RJ Lavallee through the woods at full speed.

2009-08-14T01:46:00.003-04:00

The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture.

Raymond Chandler

#19

2009-06-17T12:28:00.004-04:00

this image is a couple years old, but i am using it as inspiration for forward movement.

New Work!

2009-04-02T23:41:00.006-04:00

New Work!!

2009-03-23T10:15:00.005-04:00

New Work from this month. Please comment and pass it around.

Selections from the Charles Street Jail Series

2009-03-13T09:28:00.006-04:00

Charles Street Jail #4

Charles Street Jail #2

Charles Street Jail #1

These images are from a series taken in the former Charles Street Jail in Boston, literally the day before the demo crew arrived to gut the building in preparation to turn it into a five stare hotel. I was able to spend hours in and around the defunct offices, cells and common areas. There were no lights and only limited natural light through the windows. The images here are deceiving in their brightness. Each exposure was over a minute long enabling me the desired effect of a ghost in the hallways and rooms. The years of paint was literally dripping and slumping off the walls, and floor was covered in an inch of paint chips from the ceiling. Extremely beautiful in its decay. Most of the work is in black and white, taken with my tool of choice, an antique 4 x 5 Speed Graphic press camera. The color film I took has less of a 'timeless' feel to it, and I will post it for you at a later date.

Anastasia Cazabon

2009-03-13T09:18:00.006-04:00

Great work from and good press about a former student of mine.

Her name is Anastasia Cazabon and you should really have a look.

(click on her name to see more)

14

2009-03-06T09:32:00.010-05:00

I went across the room again to the chessboard on the card table under the lamp. There was a problem laid out on the board, a six-mover. I couldn't solve it, like a lot of my problems. I reached down and moved the knight, then pulled my hat and coat off and threw them somewhere.

Suit Series, Maine, 2008, Polaroid Type 52

thirteen

2009-03-04T11:58:00.005-05:00

The man turned his head. His face should have been a white blur when he did that. It wasn't. It remained dark. There was a mask over it.

New Work 2009

twelve

2009-02-23T10:25:00.006-05:00

OK, so I've got the engine running again. I am finally making new work and getting back into some kind of rhythm again after a months of spinning my wheels. I have not yet digested what is behind the new work, but I am sure there are fatherhood/manhood/hero/shadow-self ideas and metaphors bumping around in there somewhere. Self-portraiture as performance, performance as investigation, all that.

11

2009-02-16T09:00:00.003-05:00

-this is the last image of this series that i will be posting. The original series was a bit longer, but I feel this is a good end point for now.

I revisited this work from about 10 years ago in an effort to try to 're-experience' what it was like to create the work. I am in the midst of working on a new body of work and am experimenting with ways of re-starting my creative engine. As of this week I am shooting again and am mildly excited by the results. I will keep you posted on the results of this process. (beware, there are a few other series of work i will be revisiting)

Any techniques or thoughts on recovering from creative block or on jump starting a new body of work would be welcomed. I could try them myself and/or share them with my fine art black and white class at NESOP. By for now. S

10

2009-02-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

9

2009-02-14T09:00:00.002-05:00

(continued from 8)

A bird chirped outdoors in a tree, but that only made the silence thicker. You could have cut slices of it and buttered them.

8

2009-02-13T09:00:00.003-05:00

(continued from 7)

(deal with it Ron, I am still working this series out of my system)

7

2009-02-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

(cont.) They are always a little to one side or up or down. I touched his face. It was warm and slightly moist. That would be from his drink. He hadn't been dead more than twenty minutes.

R. Chandler

6

2009-02-11T09:29:00.012-05:00

His eyes glittered as I got close. I bent over to stare into them, to try and meet their look. It couldn't be done. It never can, with dead eyes.

5

2009-02-10T14:01:00.005-05:00

I took my upper lip between my teeth and didn't feel myself biting it until I tasted the blood.

R. Chandler

4

2009-02-09T11:46:00.007-05:00

"I wobbled and wiped the cold sweat of nausea off my forehead and felt the back of my head. It was soft and pulpy, like a bruised peach. When I touched it I could feel the pain clear down to my ankles. I could feel every pain I ever felt since the first time I got kicked in the rear in grade school.

-R. Chandler

Three

2009-02-08T15:38:00.005-05:00

Dream of the Private Eye, #5

Silver Gelatin Print

(please contact for purchase)

Number two

2009-02-06T19:23:00.010-05:00

This image is one of many I have taken of Matthew Bauer.

The photograph is one of many in a continuing series

where Mr. Bauer represents my 'shadow self'. Using an

alter ego to represent my self allows a great amount

of representation of situations that are best described

as a dream world and also allow me to work through a

darker side of my self I do not desire to or am not willing

to act out in reality.

Post Number One

2009-02-06T01:49:00.003-05:00

So I have finally made the leap into the "blog - o - sphere". I will start with baby steps here to test the water. The plan is to post something in progress, or something new every day. Have a look and follow me down this path if you can.